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In our emails, sent once or twice a week, you'll receive:
• alerts on new threats to Pennsylvania's environment
• opportunities to join other Pennsylvanians on urgent actions
• updates on the decisions that impact our environment
• resources to help you create a cleaner, greener future

Don't frack Pennsylvania!

Lobbyists for the powerful fracking industry and their political allies in the state capitol are pushing policies that would expose our health, environment, and communities to the dangers of shale gas drilling. But they've got a fight on their hands — thousands of Pennsylvanians are joining our call to help stop gas drilling from threatening our environment and our public health.

Fracking is leaving a trail of pollution across Pennsylvania

The faster the fracking industry grows, the bigger the swath of destruction it leaves across Pennsylvania.

Already, fracking has contaminated drinking water supplies with benzene, toluene, formaldehyde and other dangerous contaminants; dumped under-treated wastewater in rivers and streams from the Monongahela to Neshaminy Creek; clear-cut our state forestland to make way for gas wells; and are crisscrossing the state with dangerous gas pipelines

At risk: The health of our environment and communities

Countless Pennsylvanians living close to fracking wells have seen their lives turn upside down. Families living in the shadow of fracking face explosions mere feet from their doorsteps, polluted tap water that is unsafe to drink, toxic fumes in the air they breathe, and more:

These stories only scratch the surface. It all adds up to one simple, powerful message: fracking is dangerous to our environment and to Pennsylvanians like you and me. And fracking companies are either unwilling or unable to drill safely.

Gas companies have friends in high places

What are our leaders in Harrisburg and Washington DC doing while the frackers run amok? At best, they’re turning a blind eye. At worst, they’re working with lobbyists for the fracking industry to loosen up the rules even more.

With our activism and advocacy, we must stop the dangers of fracking

With your help, we’re working to make Pennsylvania frack-free and ban dangerous fracking.

And we’re in this fight for the long haul. With your help, we’re building the vocal public outcry that’s needed to stop fracking — a voice that will be too loud for the lobbyists to drown out, and too loud for our legislators to ignore. And our strategy starts at the grassroots:

We’re educating hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians each year about the threats of fracking .

We hold citizen trainings across Pennsylvania to teach concerned residents the skills they need to get in the fight to stop fracking.

Our staff release research exposing the damage the fracking industry has already caused.

We’re engaging tens of thousands of concerned Pennsylvanians to hold our elected officials’ feet to the fire so they know that the public won’t rest until Pennsylvania is frack-free.

"Fracking” operations pose a staggering array of threats to our environment and health. Many of these damages from drilling have significant “dollars and cents” costs. To the extent that this dirty drilling is allowed to continue, policymakers must require, among other things, that the oil and gas industry provide up front financial assurance commensurate with the potential for damage.

With public concern about serious harms caused by the gas drilling process known as fracking continuing to rise, PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center and a coalition of public health, community and environmental groups delivered more than 100,000 petitions to the state Legislature and Gov. Tom Corbett today. The petition calls for a moratorium on gas drilling in Pennsylvania until our environment and public health can be protected.

Pennsylvanians from every walk of life and all corners of the state met outside of Williamsport today to partake in a symbolic 12-mile trek to defend Loyalsock State Forest from a pending gas drilling proposal. Most of these concerned citizens had never met before, but were moved by the call to action to defend the beloved Old Logger’s Path found in the state forest, known for its beautiful waterfalls and breathtaking vistas.

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Key Facts

65 drilling companies have committed more than 6,210 violations of Pennsylvania’s environmental laws.

Roughly 700,000 acres of state forestland has been leased to private companies for gas drilling — our state parks could be next on the chopping block.

From the diesel exhaust produced by trucks and equipment, to gases vented from wells, condensers or waste ponds, air pollution from Marcellus Shale gas production poses risks to the health of nearby residents, and could cause greater air quality concerns statewide.

PennEnvironment and our activists need your help to inform 100,000 Pennsylvanians about this issue, train and empower 1,000 people to take action in their communities, and help send a strong message to legislators that you want our environment and public health protected from dangerous drilling.

In 2005, there were only a handful of gas drilling wells in Pennsylvania. Today, there are more than 10,553. And the industry predicts that thousands more will be drilled in the coming years.

Related Campaign:
Ban Oil Trains

The increasingly common practice of transporting explosive oil by train to points across the nation—including Pennsylvania— poses a disastrous risk to the health, well-being, and safety of our communities.